But as inflation soars, central bank reserves drop and the economy slows, hamstrung by currency controls that make doing legal business more difficult, many Argentines are losing faith in the peso, and in her leadership as well.

A closely watched sign of the country's economic future is the illegal currency market, where Argentines are increasingly desperate to ditch their pesos as inflation climbs above 25 percent a year. Amid fears of a potential currency shock, they're now trading nearly 10 pesos for each dollar close to half the official value of 5.2.

This "blue dollar" trading remains marginal compared to the overall economy, but it's a free market, stubbornly beyond the government's control, and as such, it's increasingly being looked at by Argentines trying to protect their pocketbooks. The central bank periodically releases dollars to rein it in, but that's risky as well, now that Argentina's reserves have dropped by more than 20 percent, to $39.75 billion.

New polls suggest Fernandez has lost more than half the support she had when re-elected in October 2011, including a 10-point ratings drop in the days since a scandal broke on April 14 over allegations that Kirchner ally and businessman Lazaro Baez spirited millions in cash out of Argentina in private planes.

A survey by the Management & Fit agency shows only 29 percent approval of Fernandez's leadership, down from 64 percent when she was re-elected. That poll of 2,000 Argentines, taken just after the scandal broke, had an error margin of 2.3 percentage points.

A separate survey about her personal image showed 48 percent viewed it as positive after the scandal broke, down from 57 percent before. A total of 1,000 Argentines responded to that survey by the Ipsos-Mora firm, which had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Fernandez waved away the trouble in a speech at the Casa Rosada government house Monday night.

"Those who want to make money at the cost of a devaluation that the people will have to pay for will have to wait for another government," she declared. History shows that devaluations have only hurt most Argentines, while enabling the financial sector to make huge gains "off the hunger, misery and de-industrialization of the country," she warned.

"They're raising this idea again because an election period is approaching," she added. "Every time there's an election, on side there's the economy and on the other, the scandals. It's typical of every election."

That brief reference to scandals was her first comment yet about allegations that Baez, a longtime ally of the Kirchners, had used his access to the presidential couple to make huge profits that he laundered by having aides fly the cash out of the country in mysterious trips on private planes.

The allegations, made by former Baez associates in televised interviews with investigative journalist Jorge Lanata, have made for sensational television in Argentina, and a judge agreed to open a formal investigation of Baez and his associates.

Lanata struck closer still to the president on Sunday night, interviewing Kirchner's former secretary, Miriam Quiroga, who described bags full of cash in the Casa Rosada. She said they were delivered to the southern province of Santa Cruz, where Baez based his business empire and the Kirchners have several homes. Quiroga also alleged that the Kirchners had vaults built to hold the cash.

Judge Julian Ercolini subpoenaed Quiroga to testify in the widening criminal investigation by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, and Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbo ordered additional police protection for the prosecutor, who reported receiving at least two threats that his young daughters will be killed if he doesn't drop the probe.

Meanwhile, Fernandez faced a new challenge on her left flank: the launching Tuesday of a new political party by her former ally, union boss Hugo Moyano, who has become one of her toughest critics. Moyano plans to run lists of candidates under his "Culture, Education and Jobs" banner in October's midterm elections.

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Associated Press Writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Justin Bieber is once again airing his thoughts on history-making figures. With about as much success as he did last time.

"Boyfriend" singer Bieber, who caught heat last month when he wondered whether Anne Frank would have been a fan of his, has now turned his gaze toward anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

Bieber's deep thoughts on Mandela? He's "the man."

Bieber, who played a show in the South African city of Cape Town on Wednesday, fired up his Twitter account on Thursday to say how impressed he was with the population -- and, in particular, Mandela, who became the president of South Africa after decades of battling the country's racist apartheid system.

"Love to the Capetown fans," Bieber wrote in one tweet, along with a series of photos in which he poses with fans.

Shortly thereafter, Bieber shot off another tweet, this one reading, "Nelson Mandela is the man!"

Actually, it could be argued that Mandela has spent the majority of his life fighting the man...

That tweet was accompanied by the hashtag #BELIEVE, which is the name of his latest album and tour. Because what's the point of awkwardly praising a person who altered the course of history, if you can't work a little self-promotion in?

Bieber, 19, drew fire in April, when he visited the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam and wrote in the guestbook that he hoped Frank, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, "would have been a Belieber" - a slang term for fans of the singer.

"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber," Bieber wrote. News of Bieber's Anne Frank comment sparked widespread criticism online in forums such as Facebook and, yes, Twitter.

The father of one of the young men the New York Post said weremightthe tabloid for tabbing his son as a suspect.

El Houssein Barhoum, whose teenage son, Salah Barhoum, is pictured on the April 18 cover of the New York Post under the headline Bag Men,"he's consulting a lawyer about a possible lawsuit.

Salah Barhoum had attended the marathon with a friend. After their photo landed on the cover of the paper, Barhoum, who lives with his family in Revere, Mass., met with authorities to clear his name.

"It's the worst feeling that I can possibly feel," Barhoumthe day the Post cover story was published. "I'm only 17."

Barhoum, a track athlete, said he wanted to run the marathon but couldn't, so he decided to watch the April 15 race instead.

The day before the Post cover came out, the photos of Barhoum and his friend were circulated by online message boards in the frenzy to help the FBI identify the bombing suspects. , federal authorities "passed around images of Barhoum, attempting to learn more information about him." But it's unclear whether that was before or after the Post ran with them.

The paper took plenty of heat for putting out an erroneous APB, but stubbornly stood its ground despite the confusion it caused.

"We stand by our story," Post editor Col Allan . "The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects."

The Post subsequentlyreporting that Barhoum and his friend had been cleared: "The two men whose photos were being circulated internally among police have been cleared as authorities determined that neither man had any role in the Boston Marathon bombings."

Bur according to Barhoum's father, the damage had already been done. We were just scared to go outside, he said.

The lava that erupted from the Cook Islands volcano, called Mangaia, contains a few tiny grains of sulfide, a mineral, with a peculiar ratio of sulfur isotopes, according to research published in today's (April 24) issue of the journal Nature. The unusual ratio could only have formed beforeappeared on Earth 2.45 billion years ago. Isotopes are versions of elements with different numbers of neutrons, giving them differing weights.

The study researchers think the sulfide formed at Earth's surface ages ago in ancient oceanic crust, and then sank deep into , likely all the way to the core-mantle boundary, 1,865 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface. Some billions of years later, a plume of hot material rising from above the core ferried the sulfide skyward, until it escaped through Mangaia about 20 million years ago.

"We have identified material that was actually at the surface 2.45 billion years ago," said Rita Cabral, lead study author and a geochemistry graduate student at Boston University. []

Reduce, reuse, recycle

The findings are direct evidence that oceanic crust was recycled in the mantle, Cabral said. Scientists are pretty confident that over millions of years, giant convection cells churned the stiff rock inside the mantle, the layer between Earth's thin crust and iron core. Convection could also recycle crust that disappears into the mantle via , the plate boundaries where one tectonic plate dives underneath another. Images derived from seismic waves, which change speed when passing through cold or hot materials, have revealed .

"The fact we have a time constraint is great for figuring out exactly how vigorous convection is in the mantle, and how extensive it is, " Cabral told OurAmazingPlanet. "It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what models come out of it. If there are areas where this material can sit around for a couple billion years, that's something really important."

The sulfur isotopes pin a minimum age on the source of Mangaia's lava, so the lava could be even older than 2.45 billion years. Before that time, there was no protective ozone layer on Earth, because there was little oxygen in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun strongly influenced sulfur chemistry in the atmosphere, leaving a distinctive chemical signature in the rocks. When oxygen-breathing life appeared, sulfur chemistry shifted dramatically.

"I think this is another really strong piece of evidence that material from the surface of the Earth gets subducted and transported to the mantle and ultimately returns in these mantle plumes," said William White, a geochemist at Cornell University who wasn't involved in the study. "My suspicion is that this has been tucked away at the base of the mantle for 2.5 billion years or so."

Mangaia is part of a chain of volcanic islands that rose from the sea over a similar to Hawaii's volcanoes.

"Stuff from the very deepest mantle is forming these ocean island volcanoes, and I think the real takeaway is the fact that there's an intimate connection between surface material and the deep mantle," White said. "Some of the things down there were once at the surface of the Earth."

Time capsule

Cabral explained that volcanic islands each have unique chemical signatures think of them as having flavors. Scientists are still sorting out the reasons for the different flavors. Some islands may come from subducted oceanic crust, while others could be sediments, or even . But there are odd geochemical signals, such as the sulfur isotopes Cabral and her co-authors found, that hint at

stranger stuff going on in the mantle.

"Some of the chemistry in these mantle-derived lavas some of the things we don't understand might reflect some of the surface history of the Earth," White told OurAmazingPlanet.

The findings help confirm that the mantle can store very old crust for billions of years. In this case, it gave geochemists a window into Earth's early history. Other odd rock chemistry has led scientists to conclude that there , from before 4 billion years ago, said Steve Shirey, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study. (The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.)

"We don't know how we go from what we see on the ocean floor to what we see at the depths, Shirey said. At this stage, a lot of things are possible.

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By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Bernie Ecclestone has made clear that Formula One will pay prize money to only the top 10 teams from the end of this season.

Since 2010, payments have been made to the 11th and 12th-placed teams to help three newcomers on reduced budgets who came in after the abrupt departure of major manufacturers Honda, Toyota and BMW.

There are now 11 teams remaining after the demise last year of Spanish-based HRT. Ecclestone, the sport's commercial chief, said the plan was to return to rewarding the top 10 only, injecting more drama into the battle to avoid last place.

"It's a bit more incentive to get going and get into the top 10. It's a bit like the football where you can go up and down," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The confidential Concorde Agreement that governs the sport expired at the end of last year and a new one, to run to the end of 2020, has yet to be signed by all parties.

In its absence, Ecclestone has agreed individual commercial agreements with all of the teams expect Russian-licensed Marussia, who have finished 11th in the last three years and behind Caterham.

Marussia chief executive Graeme Lowdon confirmed to Reuters that his team had not been offered a bilateral agreement by rights holders CVC but was reluctant to discuss the matter.

"It is our understanding that none of the parties are making any public comment about the financial discussions relating to a new Concorde Agreement and on that basis we would prefer not to make any comment," he added.

Ecclestone said after HRT folded that he would rather have10 teams, providing one of them was Ferrari.

The new Concorde Agreement, which must be signed by all teams as well as the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), should replace the various bilateral agreements once it comes into operation.

Ecclestone told reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix this month that the detailed document was "in the hands of the lawyers".

The FIA said on March 8 that negotiations were "proceeding positively in order to be concluded in the near future".

Marussia are 10th overall after four of this year's 19 races and ahead of Malaysian-owned Caterham. They nearly finished 10th last year but lost out to Caterham in the final race.

The two tail-enders considered a merger late last year but the idea was abandoned after initial talks. (Additional reporting by Keith Weir, editing by Clare Fallon)

The new research, published today (April 22) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the historical links between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and surface temperatures on Earth. Between about 333.5 million years ago and 34 million years ago, the climate transitioned from theclimate to the cooler, low-carbon-dioxide Oligocene epoch. Scientists estimate that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dropped from 1,000 parts per million to about 600 to 700 parts per million in this time frame.

During this time, ice sheets emerged overand the ocean cooled by some 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Researchers have been able to peg ocean temperatures accurately using cores of rock and mud drilled from the deep ocean. Figuring out what was happening on land has been more difficult, however.

So study researcher Michael Hren, a professor of chemistry and geosciences at the University of Connecticut, and his colleagues turned to snails. They tested fossils of a freshwater snail, Viviparus lentus, from the Isle of Wight in Great Britain, looking for variations in carbon and oxygen molecules called isotopes. []

Most important, the researchers examined how the carbon and oxygen isotopes were bound together in the fossils. These bonds are temperature-dependent, so they told researchers how chilly or warm the water was when the snails lived. From that information, the scientists could calculate how hot the air must have been.

The shells revealed that freshwater temperatures cooled by 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. The water-cooling translates to about a 7.2 degree to 11 degree F (4 to 6 degrees C) drop in air temperatures over northern Europe, the scientists reported.

These findings are important because human greenhouse gas emissions could drive atmospheric carbon dioxide up to near-Eocene levels. Ice cores put pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels at about 278 parts per million from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1800. Today, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at about 397 parts per million and climbing. According to a 2011 study in the journal Science by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), if carbon dioxide continues to rise as it is today, Earth's atmosphere could hitby 2100.

"We are on a path to fundamentally alter our global climate state," Hren said in a statement. "These data definitely give you pause."

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Athletics 10, Angels 8 (19 innings)

Oakland's Brandon Moss hit a walk-off two-run homer in the 19th inning to end the longest game in history - 6 hours, 32 minutes - for both teams, and of the baseball season.

Moss homered twice for the Athletics, who were twice down to their final out before rallying. Jerry Blevins (2-0), the last relief pitcher available for Oakland, worked the final 1 2/3 innings.

The Athletics rallied from a five-run deficit against the Angels' bullpen by scoring four times in the eighth followed by a two-out RBI single by Yoenis Cespedes in the ninth to hand Ernesto Frieri a blown save.

Albert Pujols had four hits for the Angels, including two solo home runs.

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Rockies 12, Dodgers 2

Nolan Arenado recorded his first three major-league hits - including a home run - and Tyler Chatwood pitched six shutout innings and went 3-for-4 with two RBIs for visiting Colorado.

The Rockies did not take batting practice after a mechanical problem with their plane led to a late arrival in Los Angeles.

It hardly mattered, though, as they recorded 19 hits, the most at Dodger Stadium in team history en route to only their third win in the last nine games.

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Giants 6, Diamondbacks 4

Brandon Belt homered and drove in three runs as visiting San Francisco snapped a five-game losing streak.

Belt broke a 4-4 tie in the eighth with a two-out, two-run single off Brad Ziegler (1-1). Ziegler retired the next two batters before loading the bases with consecutive walks to Gregor Blanco and Brandon Crawford.

Jean Machi (1-0) earned his first major-league victory with a scoreless seventh inning and Sergio Romo worked around a leadoff single in the ninth for his ninth save for San Francisco, which ended a six-game road losing skid.

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Marlins 4, Mets 3 (15 Innings)

Nick Green's second sacrifice fly of the game plated Justin Ruggiano with the winning run in the bottom of the 15th inning as Miami rallied to beat New York.

Rob Brantly singled home the tying run for his third hit before Green lifted a pitch by Shaun Marcum (0-2) to left field to win the contest.

Ruben Tejada, who had three hits, put New York ahead 3-2 in to the top of the 15th with an RBI infield single off winning pitcher Jon Rauch (1-2).

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Mariners 6, Orioles 2

Joe Saunders allowed two runs and four hits in a complete-game effort and improved to 6-0 against Baltimore as host Seattle won the opener of the three-game series.

Former Orioles infielder Robert Andino delivered the tiebreaking single in the fourth inning and Kyle Seager's run-scoring triple capped a three-run sixth as the Mariners won for the fourth time in five games.

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Braves 3, Nationals 2

Andrelton Simmons drove in the go-ahead run with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly, lifting hosts Atlanta in the opener of a four-game series.

Washington took a 2-1 lead in the second on run-scoring singles by Chad Tracy and Kurt Suzuki. Atlanta tied the contest at 2-2 in the fourth on Gerald Laird's single to center.

Washington starter Stephen Strasburg gave up two runs with eight strikeouts in six innings and remains 1-4 on the season.

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Cubs 5, Padres 3

Cody Ransom homered and drove in the go-ahead run against his former team as hosts Chicago claimed the opener of a four-game series.

Scott Hairston and Ransom hit back-to-back home runs while Darwin Barney had a pair of RBI doubles for the Cubs, who have won four of five.

Ransom, who was waived by the Padres after starting the season 0-for-11, broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth with an RBI single up the middle and scored on Barney's slicing double down the right-field line.

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Reds 2, Cardinals 1

Mat Latos pitched six shutout innings to outduel Adam Wainwright as visiting Cincinnati claimed the opener of the three-game series.

Latos (2-0) allowed five hits and walked three while extending his scoreless string to 17 innings and lowering his ERA to 1.84, while Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth to record his sixth save in six chances.

Joey Votto had an RBI single for the Reds, who went ahead 2-0 in the fourth on a run-scoring groundout by Xavier Paul.

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Brewers 10, Pirates 4

Jean Segura sparked a five-run first inning with a two-run blast as hosts Milwaukee continued their recent domination of Pittsburgh.

Yovani Gallardo (3-1) homered for the second time this season and retired the final 13 batters he faced before departing after seven innings, allowing two runs.

Carlos Gomez, Yuniesky Betancourt and Norichika Aoki also went deep for the Brewers.

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Indians 9, Royals 0

Ryan Raburn blasted two homers and Ubaldo Jimenez tossed seven shutout innings as Cleveland blanked host Kansas City in the series finale.

Jason Kipnis added a solo homer for the Indians, who outscored the Royals 19-3 in the final two games of the series after losing the first two by a combined score of 12-2.

Jimenez (0-3) gave up three hits and threw 103 pitches to win for the first time since Aug. 9, a span of 13 starts.

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Astros 9, Yankees 1

Carlos Corporan homered and drove in four in his first career four-hit game while Lucas Harrell went 6 1/3 strong innings as visiting Houston crushed New York.

Brandon Barnes added three hits and three RBIs and Carlos Pena drove in a run for the Astros, who pounded out 17 hits in snapping a four-game losing streak.

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Tigers 4, Twins 3

Prince Fielder belted a three-run home run and Max Scherzer fanned 10 as hosts Detroit downed Minnesota to win their fourth straight game.

Andy Dirks hit his first homer and scored a pair of runs in support of Scherzer (3-0), who allowed three runs on six hits over 7 1/3 innings.

The Twins held a 3-1 lead before Fielder's big shot against Mike Pelfrey (2-3) in the sixth. (Editing by Peter Rutherford/John O'Brien)

Still, in a boost for the rescuers, 29 survivors were pulled out Saturday, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.

Most of the victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them when the 8-story structure came down on Wednesday morning -- a time many of the garment factories in the building were packed with workers. It was the worst tragedy to hit Bangladesh's massive garment industry, and focused attention on the poor working conditions of the employees who toil for $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.

Among those arrested Saturday were two owners of a garment factory, who a Dhaka court ruled can be questioned by police for 12 days without charges being filed. Also detained are two government engineers and the wife of the building owner, who is on the run, in an attempt to force him to surrender. Late Saturday, police arrested another factory owner. Violent public protests continued sporadically in Dhaka and spread to the southeastern city of Chittagong where several vehicles were set on fire.

Working round-the-clock since Wednesday through heat and a thunderstorm, rescuers on Saturday finally reached the ground floor from the top of the mountainous rubble through 25 narrow holes they have drilled, said Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, the head of the fire services.

"We are still getting response from survivors though they are becoming weaker slowly," he said, adding that rescue workers were now able to see cars that were parked at the ground level.

"The building is very vulnerable. Any time the floors could collapse. We are performing an impossible task, but we are glad that we are able to rescue so many survivors."He said the operations will continue overnight as chances fade of people surviving for a fifth day with possibly grievous injuries and the heat.

The building site was a hive of frenzied activity all day with soldiers, police and medical workers in lab coats working non-stop. Rescuers passed bottles of water and small cylinders of oxygen up a ladder leaning against the side of the building to be given to possible survivors inside.

They used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.

Nearby, Abul Basar wept as he awaited news of his wife, who worked in one of the garment factories. "My son says that his mother will come back some day. She must return! " he cried.

Every once in a while a badly decomposed body would be brought out, covered in cloth and plastic, to a spot where ambulances were parked. Workers furiously sprayed air-fresheners on the bodies to cover the stench, leaving the air thick with the smell of death and cheap perfume.

The bodies were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.

Junior local government minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak put the death toll at 348. Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said 2,429 survivors were accounted for, including 29 who were pulled out Saturday.

Junior Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman. He told reporters that police had also detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, for questioning. The top three floors of the eight-story building were illegally constructed. Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said officials arrested Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd., late Saturday in Dhaka.

Authorities are still searching for Rana, a local politician, who hasn't been seen publicly since the building collapsed. Negligence cases have been filed against him. Police in Bangladesh often detain relatives of missing suspects as a way to pressure them to surrender.

Dhaka police superintendent Habibur Rahman said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.

Police said they detained for questioning two engineers working for the Savar municipality, Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali. They did not say what role they played in approving the design of the building but it was clear that the arrests amounted to a widening crackdown. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed.

Police say they ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday after cracks in Rana Plaza were found, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when it collapsed the next day. Video before the collapse shows cracks in walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete and police talking to building operators.

Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.

The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. Since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

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AP writers Chris Blake and Gillian Wong in Dhaka, Stephen Wright in Bangkok, Kay Johnson in Mumbai, Matthew Pennington in Washington and AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

This woman, whose romance with a bishop and eventual marriage became a major scandal in the 1960s, is such a close friend with Pope Francis that he called her every Sunday when he was Argentina's leading cardinal.

Luro's convinced that he will eventually lead the global church to end mandatory priestly celibacy, a requirement she says "the world no longer understands." She believes this could resolve a global shortage of priests, and persuade many Catholics who are no longer practicing to recommit themselves to the church.

"I think that in time priestly celibacy will become optional," Luro said in an interview with The Associated Press in her home in Buenos Aires, after sending an open letter to the pope stating her case. "I'm sure that Francis will suggest it."

John Paul II, Benedict XVI and other popes before them forbade any open discussion of changing the celibacy rule, and Francis hasn't mentioned the topic since becoming pope last month.

"I don't see how in any way this would form part of his agenda," said the Rev. Robert Gahl, an Opus Dei moral theologian at the Pontifical Holy Cross University in Rome.

But as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he referred to the issue of celibacy in ways that have inspired advocates to think that the time for a change has come.

In his book "On Heaven and Earth," published last year, Bergoglio said: "For the moment I'm in favor of maintaining celibacy, with its pros and cons, because there have been 10 centuries of good experiences rather than failures." But he also noted that "it's a question of discipline, not of faith. It could change," and said the Eastern Rite Catholic church, which makes celibacy optional, has good priests as well.

"In the hypothetical case that the church decides to revise this rule ... it would be for a cultural reason, as with the case of the Eastern church, where they ordain married men," he said in "Pope Francis. Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio," re-published last month by his authorized biographers, Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti.

Luro and her husband, the former bishop of Avellaneda, Jeronimo Podesta, felt ostracized from the church for many years, but she says Bergoglio didn't hesitate to minister to them when Podesta was hospitalized before his death in 2000. They became such good friends thereafter that Luro said Bergoglio called her every Sunday for 12 years, and often discussed the celibacy issue as they debated all sorts of hot topics in private conversations.

Luro now feels that the cardinals' election of a Jesuit and Vatican outsider who is committed to expanding the global church and reaffirming its commitment to the poor shows their willingness to undertake profound changes to stem an exodus of the faithful.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and Vatican analyst at Georgetown University, said a first step might be for Francis to simply signal that it's OK to debate the issue.

"The Vatican led by John Paul and Benedict said that certain topics were just off the table, and any bishop who discussed them would be in trouble. And theologians who wrote about them would get into trouble. So this is part of a bigger question of how much open discussion Pope Francis is going to allow in the church," Reese said.

"This would be exactly the kind of open discussion that the Vatican does not like," Reese added. "Their attitude is that you shouldn't confuse the children by having the parents argue."

Canon 277 of the Vatican's legal code reads: "Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and are therefore bound to celibacy. Celibacy is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can more easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart, and can dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and their neighbor."

Still, celibacy is not dogma a law of divine origin but a tradition of the Roman Catholic church. Dogma cannot change, but traditions can.

"We're very enthusiastic and hopeful that Francis could reverse this canonic measure," said Guillermo Schefer, a former priest who along with his wife, Natalia Bertoldi, are vice presidents of the Latin-American Federation of Married Priests. "It's important that the priests can also opt for a life of marriage and family. It would help them integrate more with the people."

In the Eastern Rite Catholic Church, seminarians who are already married can be ordained later as priests. Some married Anglican priests also have been allowed to convert to Roman Catholicism, and some widowers with families have become priests later.

But as Gahl notes, no Roman Catholic tradition allows men who have already "married the church" to later marry a wife. This would create a divided heart, a weakened commitment, and go against much of what Francis has said since becoming pope about the need for priests to deny themselves earthly pleasures as they spread the Gospel, he said.

"He's been preaching this pretty much every morning" at the Vatican, Gahl said. Advocates for optional celibacy are "saying priesthood is too hard; why don't we make it easier? But what the pope is saying is, "If you make this sacrifice, it would bring you pure joy.' "

Those resisting change say celibacy has other benefits, not least among them financial: Imagine if the world's 400,000 Roman Catholic priests all had families, presumably large ones given the church's ban on contraception. Suddenly, relatively meager priestly salaries would have to increase exponentially.

Still, tens of thousands of priests have left their ministries to marry, and many others, particularly in Africa and Latin America, have remained while having relationships with women and children on the side. Bergoglio condemns that practice in his books.

"What I won't permit is the double life," he said. "If he can't carry on his ministry, I tell him to stay home, that we seek a papal dispensation, and that way he can receive the sacrament of marriage."

Benedict reaffirmed mandatory celibacy in response to a high-profile crusade by a married African archbishop who was excommunicated after defying the Vatican and ordaining four married men as bishops.

Bergoglio's great friend Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil got into hot water when he noted that priestly celibacy is not a matter of divine law during a 2006 newspaper interview he gave before arriving in Rome to take over the Vatican's office for the world's priests. It sparked such speculation about a potential change that Hummes had to issue a lengthy statement reaffirming celibacy.

Luro was 39, separated and with six children when she met Podesta, then 45, in 1966. He was already a bishop, and very committed to social causes, advocating liberation theology as part of the Movement of Third World Priests.

"I was the first woman for Jeronimo," she recalls. Far from hiding it, they made their relationship public and launched a campaign for optional celibacy that took them to the Vatican's doors. Shortly thereafter, Pope Paul VI issued the encyclical "Sacerdotalis Caelibatus" in 1967, ratifying priestly vows of perpetual celibacy.

Luro said Bergoglio's Sunday phone calls were a huge support for her. "We would speak of the church, we debated. I sent him Jeronimo's writings."

And after becoming Francis, he called her again, she said. Out of respect for the pope, she won't say what he told her.

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Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this story.

Squaw Valley worked closely with Carbon Lighthouse to determine the carbon footprint of the competition and offset it through the retirement of legally binding carbon allowances. The calculations included athlete and spectator travel, lift operations, course grooming, snowmaking and special events. The total carbon footprint of the event is 273 tons, or the equivalent of driving 60+ cars for one year.

"Our company and the entire Squaw Valley team are committed to being responsible environmental stewards as the mountain and our environment are absolutely central to the Squaw experience," notes president and CEO Andy Wirth.

Guests at the event are being encouraged to follow Squaw's lead and think about their own environmental impact during their time on the mountain.

The ski resort has been working with Carbon Lighthouse over the past year to identify and reduce energy waste across both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. Projects are currently underway that will reduce the carbon footprint of the two mountains by over 10% while also saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and improving operations as well.

"We are extremely proud to be sponsoring such an important event for the ski community while reducing the environmental impact and raising awareness about climate change," said Emma Bassein, Carbon Lighthouse's Director of Impact. "This is just one of the many ways that Squaw Valley Ski Resort is leading the way in sustainability and we are pleased to make such a large impact through both this sponsorship and our ongoing energy efficiency work with the mountain."

The event is open to the public and set up for spectator viewing. Carbon Lighthouse will have a booth onsite offering additional information about energy efficiency and climate mitigation, and you can learn more online at .

SOURCE Carbon Lighthouse